Here in the US we have been conditioned by the propaganda machine to accept the premise that "speed is bad" from a young age. This is narrow point of view. Under the right conditions, traveling at a high rate of speed can be quite safe. Sadly, we have none of those conditions here in our country. For example.......
1) Our road construction and maintenance are not up the task. Road maintenance on the interstates vary from good to p*ss poor. Our highways are not constructed for triple digit speeds. Many turn radiuses are too tight to support going faster than our ho-hum speed limits.
2) Our drivers licensing standards are laughable. It is too easy to get a license here. If we properly trained our drivers we would have less accidents, lower insurance, and drivers would have the skills to go faster safely if they needed to.
3) Our standards of what make a car safe are a joke. Car makers can make cars that will safely maintain high speeds, but they don't have to. Our (yawn) 55-70 mph speed limits make that unnecessary. I would feel much safer doing 100 in a BMW then doing 70 in a Kia Rio. In addition, some states have no required vehicle safety checks whatsoever. We have all seen the rustbuckets on the highways leaking oil, tires wobbling, blowing smoke, with a muffler looking like it could fall off at any second, and asking ourself "Why is this vehicle allowed on the streets?"
I would invite all those think speed is inherently unsafe to visit a counry like Germany, where driving is a privilege. There, drivers are properly trained, the cars actually have to be roadworthy, the highways and cars are built for
speed, and drivers actually respect one another (most of the time). I felt much safer commuting to work there at 110 mph than I do here at 70 mph on I-5. The difference is night and day.
So true, but I never used to speed anyway
